Friday, July 25, 2025

The Memoirs of Nicodemus Legend: Clueless in San Francisco

The Memoirs of Nicodemus Legend"Clueless in San Francisco" was the eleventh episode of Legend, and first aired on July 25th, 1995. It was written by Carol Caldwell & Marianne Clarkson and directed by Charles Correll. You can watch the episode via Amazon Prime Video or DVD.

Bartok's Electrical Transmission ExperimentBartok’s experiments in energy transfer are interrupted when a white woman in Native American clothing arrives at the laboratory seeking the help of Nicodemus Legend. The woman, who calls herself “Paytents,” was lost as a child while her family was en route to what she remembers being referred to as “the largest city in California.” She was subsequently raised by a Blackfoot Indian tribe, eventually marrying a tribal chief named “Rain Pony.” Now pregnant with their first child, Paytents wishes to know more about her own roots. After hearing of her desire to discover her birth family, Bartok convinces Pratt to join them in traveling to San Francisco to solve the mystery.

Paytents' RingArriving in San Francisco, Pratt and Paytents first meet with members of the press, and then they and Bartok go to the house of Pratt’s mother, Delilah, where she keeps a “salon” gathering many diverse and exotic people from around the world. When Pratt introduces Paytents to his mother, he also shows her the one artifact Paytents retained from her birth parents, an Irish wedding band with the letter “W” inscribed on it, giving them information from which to conduct a search. 

Pratt shortly receives a summons to meet someone, alone, and is knocked unconscious en route by an unseen assailant. Upon awakening, Pratt finds himself with an injured head, confronting a large man who prefers to remain anonymous, citing the wishes of an equally-anonymous “client.” The man informs Pratt that markers representing Pratt’s extensive gambling debts have been purchased. Should Pratt and Paytents simply leave San Francisco, the markers will be destroyed, but if he refuses, the markers will be called in and his mother’s home will be confiscated to repay the debt. Pratt refuses, but is knocked out again before he can do anything further, and he is returned unconscious to his mother’s home. 

Pratt RecoversRecovering from this ordeal, Pratt and the others discuss the situation. Recognizing that Paytents’ arrival seems to have stirred something up, and that anyone with the wherewithal to buy Pratt’s gambling markers must have significant resources, Pratt reasons that Paytents’ family may reside in the wealthy neighborhood known as “Nob Hill.” Delilah offers to use her social connections to learn more, while Pratt and Bartok try another angle, going to the casino where Pratt’s markers were held to learn the name of the person who purchased them. They don’t learn much, not even a real name, but they do learn that the purchaser, known as “Tattoo Man,” owns a store on East Street, giving them a direction to investigate further, although not before discovering that Paytents has been kidnapped. 

Pratt and Bartok in PursuitPratt and Bartok locate Tattoo Man, and Bartok slips one of his electronic trackers into Tattoo Man’s pocket. While their pursuit is easily discovered, not only by Tattoo Man, but also by Rain Cloud (Paytents’ husband), our heroes nonetheless locate where Paytents is being held. A fight breaks out, and the large man who had threatened Pratt earlier (later identified as Andre Quelle Heure, a member of the San Francisco underworld) is killed before he can reveal who hired him. Pratt searches Andre’s pockets, and finds an envelope with money and an image resembling that of Paytents’ ring. 

Returning to the Pratt home, Delilah reveals the result of the research she has been conducting with the help of her salon guests: a family, wealthy through the shipping industry, by the name of “Walsh” that arrived in San Francisco at about the same time as Paytents was lost. Conveniently, a masquerade ball is being conducted at the residence of Melissa Walsh, a widow and sole heir to the family fortune, and so Delilah’s entourage arranges to attend. 

Pratt Meets Grandmother WalshBartok conducts a fake seance to distract the guests while Pratt goes upstairs in search of evidence to link the Walshes to Paytents. Pratt soon finds himself in a room filled with pictures. Finding one of a young family taken about 20 years previously, Pratt is interrupted by an elderly woman who tells him the story behind it. The picture was the last one taken before the woman’s son and his family headed out west (the rest of the extended family having traveled by ship). Sadly, the son and his family were killed by Indians, including the daughter, Patience. The woman also has a ring identical to Paytents' ring. Pratt immediately recognizes the truth, and is able to tell the woman that her granddaughter survived. 

Paytents Meets Her Grandmother
Grandmother Walsh (we never learn her given name) joins Pratt downstairs as Bartok’s fake seance begins to fall apart, and just in time to keep Melissa from kicking everyone out. Seeing Paytents for the first time, Grandmother recognizes Patience’s mother in her, and the truth is revealed to all. Paytents and Rain Pony return home to their tribe, but secure in the knowledge that their child’s inheritance has been protected, despite Melissa’s efforts to keep the rest of the world from learning that her cousin Patience had survived. Pratt says goodbye to his proud mother, and he and Bartok return home. 


Some additional notes:
  • Nikola Tesla experimentThe opening scene, wherein Bartok experiments with energy transfer, seems a clear homage to real-life experiments conducted by Nikola Tesla. Compare the image here to the image near the top of the page. 
  • San Francisco is referred to as “the largest city in California.” While this is no longer the case today (there are three California cities larger than San Francisco today), it still had this distinction in 1876, and indeed did so through the early part of the 20th century. 
  • If the aesthetic for most of this episode looks a little different from the rest, it may be because many of the scenes weren't shot in Mescal (as was the case for much of the series, and specifically scenes taking place in and around Sheridan), but in Bisbee, another Arizona town, near the Mexican border.*
  • Ramos has been an inadequately used character throughout most of this series, but this episode is the absolute nadir, as he is used only in the opening scene, and then dropped off “to do research” while Pratt and Bartok journey to San Francisco for the rest of the episode. At least he gets more screen time in the final episode…. 
  • Paytents has traveled quite some distance to see Nicodemus Legend. The Blackfoot Confederacy collectively describes a group of Native American tribes, all located in a band at the Northern edge of the United States and Southern Canada. 
  • Although Andre dismisses Pratt’s offer to repay his own gambling debts on the grounds that Pratt is a writer (a reasonable enough justification on its face), previous episodes have suggested that Pratt’s income is extremely high for the era. I can only assume that his debts are even higher. 
  • Although Pratt does wire ahead to his mother, and also discusses Paytents’ search with the press, it's not entirely clear how Melissa Walsh knew that Paytents’ was likely a blood relative, and thus a threat to her fortune. Without this knowledge, the effort Melissa undertakes to ensure that the truth is never discovered makes little sense. The design of the wedding band, on its own (and even assuming the press knew about it… this isn’t established), hardly seems sufficient, as it is indeed a fairly common Irish design in real life (admittedly often seen without the "W"). We can only assume that Melissa had access to additional information.
The Memoirs of Nicodemus Legend returns in two weeks as we look at the final episode, "Skeletons in the Closet"

*Source: E-mail from Bill Dial to Sarah (last name redacted at her request), dated May 3, 2000.

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